Violence comes from deliberate provocation

The eruption in the Mideast this week is directly attributable to an anti-Islam film called "Innocence of Muslims." Under cover of Mideast protests of that film, some hardline Islamic groups used the opportunity to stoke anti-American flames and, in the case of Libya, kill the U.S. ambassador.

Anti-American rage is spreading through the Mideast, especially the Arab Spring nations of Egypt and Libya, but unrest is also being registered in Yemen.

The Arab response to the movie was predictable. There are many instances in the past of Muslim reaction to what they consider the West's blasphemy, such as author Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" and the publication of anti-Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper.

In 2010, a Florida pastor named Terry Jones wanted a "burn a Quran day." At the request of the Army, Jones called off the day, but he has persisted in anti-Muslim vehemence. In fact, Jones has been showing this film to his congregation and praying for the filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who obviously made the shoddy, amateurish production to inflame Muslims. He seems to be a Coptic (Egyptian) Christian and is closely associated with American evangelicals, like Jones and the film's adviser Steve Klein, an insurance agent who likens himself to James Bond in ferreting out Muslim terrorists in California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Christian backers of the film apparently have no qualms in disrespecting another religion but don't like it when their own religion is questioned. Remember Martin Scorsese's 1988 movie "The Last Temptations of Christ," where Jesus flirts with the possibility of not going on the cross and speculates about living life as a man? The outrage was vocal across the country. No one died, of course, but there are other issues at work in the Mideast besides the movie. The makers of this film and many Americans don't seem to try and understand the seismic changes the area is going through.

The movie comes down to a First Amendment issue, and, in the U.S., making and showing it cannot be stopped for religious or political considerations. At the same time, Islamic countries have never enjoyed freedom of speech and press and anti-Muslim references are prohibited.

With free speech comes accountability. You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater, and if you get vocal and belligerent with a guy in a bar, you might expect to be greeted with a haymaker across the jaw. The point is, the human qualities of respect and understanding need to be employed with speech. If not, the speaker has to expect repercussions.

Free speech is a valuable right and to use it to deliberately provoke, insult and even terrorize is going to be met with resistance. This is obviously not understood by the likes of Nakoula, Klein and Jones, who have their own small-minded agendas, who sit comfortably in the country that provides those rights and can watch the fireworks from a protected distance while their government makes the hard decisions of maintaining a foreign policy with countries who are increasingly anti-American because of an ignorant minority.

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Violence comes from deliberate provocation

The eruption in the Mideast this week is directly attributable to an anti-Islam film called 'Innocence of Muslims.' Under cover of Mideast protests of that film, some hardline Islamic groups used the